Thanks for all the advice everyone. We ended up getting an apartment at Forest Lake apartments (a DTN managed place but it isn't a ****hole like most DTN places in EL). It's on the edge of Muskegon and Norton Shores (technically in Norton Shores) so we aren't in a crap neighborhood. Hopefully I'm not S. Nicking myself by giving this info

but I figured those of you who gave advice would be curious about where we decided to live.